TWENTY-THIRD ORDINARY MEETING. 291 
the same sound, must have made the study of this interesting language 
a laborious business to the common people. And in this fact, among 
others, we can see how very naturally the Egyptian scholars were the 
Egyptian priestly class, and the men of leisure. 
The Ethiopians were known to the Hebrews as Cushites, the same 
name by which the Egyptians designated them on the monuments. 
But’ the most ancient historic document we have classifies the 
Cushites, Canaanites and Egyptians as originally tribes from the 
same Hamitic stock. This fact is supported by independent and 
valid evidence. From the earliest historic times a most intimate 
connection existed between Egypt and Ethiopia on the south. The 
Ethiopian armies served with the native Egyptian, and the Egyptian 
kings found an asylum and support there when their own land was 
invaded and subdued by foreign enemies. The kings of Egypt even 
married Ethiopian princesses, when no state reasons required them 
to form such a bond of union with their southern neighbours. In 
all this varied intercourse no interpreters were employed. No 
record, at least, is given of such a fact, and we may reasonably infer, 
therefore, that the Egyptians understood the language of the Cushites, 
and therefore that the Egyptian and Cushite language were similar, 
if not identical. From these facts it might be inferred a priori that 
there would be an essential resemblance between the Egyptian 
Hieroglyphic and Ethiopic, and this is true as a matter of fact, 
From this brief survey of the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic, I think 
we may deduce the following conclusions : 
1. That it is closely allied with the Accadian and the modern 
Assyrian, as found on the tablets and monuments discovered in the 
ruins in Mesopotamia. 
2. That the Egyptian Hieroglyphic is in some of its fundamental 
parts Semitic, and points to a common origin with Hebrew, Syriac 
and Arabic. 
3. That it was the same in its origin and essence as the language 
of the Cushites on the south, which is substantiated by the fact that 
there is a somewhat close affinity between the Kgyptian Hieroglyphic, 
or its descendant the Coptic, and the Ethiopic. 
4. That an affinity exists between the Egyptian and some of the 
Aryan languages, as Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and German. 
5. And as a final conclusion of the survey of this archaic language 
once spoken by the race that has left behind it the most lasting 
